ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the question of what we ought to do legally about prostitution. It offers a brief overview of political principles and strategies that inform the evaluation of both the possible legal treatments of prostitution and possible extralegal supports. In moving to the question of public policy, it is essential to be equally sensitive to one's actual political context if one's efforts are to yield real change. Political theorists have argued that the state is justified in limiting individual rights, liberties, or activities on the basis of quite disparate justifications. In legal and moral discussions the terms bodily autonomy and bodily integrity are used interchangeably, but this confuses some distinct concepts—with drastically different political implications. The is also concerned to demonstrate that the history of the criminal justice system and regulatory systems directed at prostitution makes it apparent that continued criminalization or legalization will serve only to further gender discrimination, along with racial and economic class discrimination.
